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Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: Questions about Symbolics lisp machines
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From: Erik Naggum
Message-ID: <3226280843254377@naggum.net>
Organization: Naggum Software, Oslo, Norway
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Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 05:07:08 GMT
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* Thomas Bushnell, BSG
| Would this be true for other commercial products? Is it *wrong* to
| give away bread that people clearly have commercial value for?
As a general market mechanism? Of course! If bread were free, there
would be no point in making one type of bread taste better than another,
no point in having a large variety, no point in offering a means for
people to request special kinds, because all change and variety has high
costs and if you give something away for free, you strongly and actively
inhibit innovation. Also, you would have no way to control the amount of
bread that would be consumed, so somebody who, say, figured out that
using dried bread for fuel could just empty every grocery store of all
bread and let it dry naturally.
But would it be wrong to give your fmaily bread on the table? No.
///
--
In a fight against something, the fight has value, victory has none.
In a fight for something, the fight is a loss, victory merely relief.